TIMELINES

Two Rockland and Westchester judges are trading places. Judge Rolf Thorsen of Rockland County is being moved to the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains while Judge David Zuckerman is being moved to the Rockland Courthouse in New City. Chief judge for the 9th Judicial District, Judge Alan Scheinkman, is responsible for the move. He said that the move better reflected the seniority of each judge and the caseload they would have to deal with.

Monsey thieves strike on Sabbath

Friday night in Monsey, thieves were said to be at it again, stealing belongings inside of people’s cars. MonseyAlerts posted a video from a dashcam inside of one victim’s cars. The thieves are seen in the video rummaging through the car and pocketing the victim’s belongings. There has been an alleged spate of Sabbath night burglaries in the hamlet.

German police are currently searching for up to 1,000 men of “Arab or North African descent” according to the UK’s dailymail.com. The men are said to have sexually assaulted numerous women in addition to causing a dangerous scene at the Cologne train station on New Year’s Eve. One police officer described the scene as reminiscent of “civil war.”

Video shows the men on New Year’s Eve night throwing fireworks into a crowd at Cologne station. In addition to sexually assaulting many of their victims, the men also allegedly robbed them. German police are still unsure as to whether or not the men were migrants. Liberal lawmakers have faced criticism for attempts to downplay the violence. German authorities fear a nationalist backlash following the entrance of 1 million mostly Muslim “refugees” recently allowed into the country.

Twitter blasphemy

Twitter is looking to expand its original 140-character limit and increase it to up to 10,000 characters. This new plan is being called “Beyond 140” and is said to launch by the end of the first quarter of 2016. Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey recently tweeted a screenshot of what the new feature will look like along with an explanation as to why Twitter decided to make the switch. Dorsey said the character limit was never a part of Twitter’s original design, but just an accommodation to the SMS 160 character limit.

Cuomo’s tunnel

Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed a $5 million state study for a tunnel that would connect Long Island to Westchester, the Bronx, or Connecticut. Cuomo says that the tunnel would “shave hours and hours from a commutation standpoint.” Proposals have been made before for a tunnel to Long Island dating back to 1960 but none have ever made it off the ground.

Penn Station improvements likely

As early as this week, Governor Cuomo may be announcing plans to restore plans to overhaul Penn Station. The plan would include a revival of the Moynihan Station plan, which moves Amtrak’s waiting area to the James A. Farley Post Office Building. Cuomo plans on bringing more light and air into Penn Station by moving Madison Square Garden from atop the terminal.

Fourteen members of local drug ring convicted of charges

After the massive drug bust in March where 29 people were arrested for selling oxycodone and heroin, 14 of them have offically pled guilty to federal charges. According to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s Office, all 14 admitted on Tuesday to narcotics conspiracy charges. The others involved in the drug ring face state drug charges. The elaborate drug ring sold out of the Palisades Mall parking lot, Shops of Nanuet parking lot, and the Mount Ivy Trailer Park in Pomona where the leader Victor “Tonchi” Esteban, 27, lived. According to lohud.com the leader Esteban would gather money from members of the drug ring “to buy heroin from Juan Agramonte, 50, in the Bronx.”

Piazza makes the Hall of Fame

Mike Piazza of the Mets, Dodgers and other teams and Ken Griffey Jr. who played for the Mariners and Reds and others have both been elected into baseball’s Hall of Fame. Piazza will become the second player to be inducted into the hall as a New York Met, the other being Tom Seaver. Piazza was on his fourth year on the ballot and received 83 percent of the vote, crossing the necessary 75 percent threshold. Ken Griffey Jr. broke Seaver’s 98.6 percent record and received 99.3 percent of the vote. What had originally held back Piazza was that many voters thought there was a connection between Piazza and illegal performance enhancing drugs. However, no actual evidence backed up this suspicion, merely rumors. Piazza hit a record 396 home runs as a catcher, 427 home runs overall, and also had 1,335 RBIs and a .308 batting average.